Using my Perception plugin with reference tracks

The main feature of my Perception mastering plugin is to help you quickly and easily find the “loudness sweet spot” for your music, by giving you the ability to make seamless, loudness-matched comparisons “before” and “after” your mastering chain processing.

However because Perception can balance anything to play at your chosen reference loudness, it also gives you a quick and easy way to compare the songs you’re working on with other commercial releases you admire, in a truly objective way.

Lots of people have been asking how to set this up, so the video above demonstrates exactly how to do it using Perception running inside Logic, but the same method will work in any DAW (including Logic X and Pro Tools version 10 and higher).

Balancing levels in this way is crucial, when you’re trying to figure out how your work stands up against the competition – it’s almost impossible to over-state the importance of loudness matching when comparing the sound of mixes and masters. To see a real-world demonstration, click here.

You can make comparisons like this using nothing but an R128 level meter and a little ingenuity, but the process is far quicker and easier using Perception, as you’ll see in the video above.

And when you do, you can get some startling insights about the way your music really sounds.

Remember, If you’d like to try Perception yourself we’re running a competition this week – to enter now for the chance to win a free copy, click here.